


Teacher's Pet

by Queen of the Castle (queen_of_the_castle_77)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Drama, M/M, Pre-Slash, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-23
Updated: 2011-08-23
Packaged: 2017-10-22 23:49:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/243929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_of_the_castle_77/pseuds/Queen%20of%20the%20Castle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The students of Hogwarts have always called Percy names. It's only later that he realises that there may be some truth to them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Teacher's Pet

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Lusty Month of May Marathon 2007. Percy is 17 years old when the sexual references occur.

Percy Weasley had been called a lot of offensive things in his life. He tried to ignore them, reminding himself that the only reason people resented him was that merely looking at him and all of his accomplishments made them feel inadequate in comparison.  
"Teacher's pet," someone mocked in his first year when McGonagall looked at him favourably during one of their opening lessons. Percy never found out who had said it, but it had seemed to open the floodgates for the rest of them.

"Nerd."

"Geek."

"Weirdo."

"Freak."

When Percy had finally snapped in his second year and hexed one of the boys who called him such names, the others quickly decided that names like 'psycho' were even more fitting.

That was, of course, until he was caught staring at Oliver Wood as the other boy walked around the dormitory in nothing but a towel slung low around his hips.

"Enjoying the view, Percy?" one of his fellow fourth-years taunted.

Another boy laughed and snickered, "Nancy boy."

Oliver's face and chest went bright red in embarrassment and he raced to gather his clothing and retreat from the room – and from Percy's eyes, ostensibly.

They'd certainly forgotten about telling him how he should have been a Ravenclaw (or a Hufflepuff) after that. They had better ways to mock him, after all. It hadn't taken Percy long to figure out that a lot of the names they started called him, even though he'd never heard half of them before, were referring to his sexual orientation.

He wasn't gay, though. He was fairly sure he wasn't, at least, and he didn't appreciate that everyone would assume that he was.

When his fifth year arrived, Percy found some form of relief; his Prefect status granted him the ability to dish out detention, and he took full advantage of it. The obvious insults seemed to die off a little, though Percy knew that they were still calling him all manner of things behind his back. He still heard echoing whispers in the hall, though he could rarely identify just who exactly had spoken against him.

He hated it. He hated that he still couldn't control them, even with his Prefect power.

So he eventually decided that the only thing to do was disprove the rumours.

Penelope Clearwater was a nice girl, of course, and she really did seem to like him. He felt bad that he only liked her back as a friend. Especially when, upon his 'secret relationship' coming out during the holidays between his sixth and seventh years, he found that he was still being harassed. Now, though, they were taunting him about Penelope. And somehow that felt even more wrong to him, because he definitely wasn't ‘mooning about missing her’, as Fred liked to joke.

So he broke up with her after the holidays. She wasn't devastated, precisely, but she was upset. Confused, mostly.

"Percy?" she asked. "Can I ask you something? Are you actually gay, like they say?"

Percy forced a laugh. "No. Why would you think such a thing? The people who say that are all just jealous of me. I'm Head Boy, now, after all, and at the top of our year in all my subjects. And besides, would I have dated you if I didn't like girls?"

"Er, I suppose not," she said, but she still looked uncertain.

He didn't understand why no one would believe him. So he hadn't liked Penelope like _that_. That didn't prove anything. She was hardly the chosen representative of the entire female species.

And yet, once Penelope was out of the picture, the name-calling quickly started reaching his ears once more. It took him a while to realise why they called him 'Head Boy' and laughed like it was the biggest joke in the world.

Two weeks into his final year at Hogwarts and he was already completely miserable, even though everything should have been going his way. This must have been fairly obvious, for he was asked to stay behind in Defence class one day.

"Mr Weasley," Professor Lupin greeted once the rest of the students had vacated the room. "May I call you Percy?"

Percy nodded.

"Good. Is everything all right? No problems at home, or with your friends?"

"Of course not. I'm perfectly fine," Percy replied, trying not to sound affronted. How dare this man call him back after class to talk about things that were none of his business? All the other teachers seemed to know that he should be left to his own devices. He was Head Boy. He was certainly capable of dealing with his own problems.

Lupin nodded slowly. "All right. I just noticed that you've seemed… upset, during these first few weeks. My colleagues assure me that you're usually fairly quiet, of course, but I was just wondering if there's anything you wanted to talk about."

Percy gritted his teeth. Now the man had been talking to the other professors about him?

"I'm fine," he repeated tersely. "I'm just a little stressed about the upcoming N.E.W.T.s."

"Ah," Lupin said mildly. "I see. I don't think you have anything to worry about, Percy. From what I've seen so far, you're a model student. If you really feel you need help, though, I'd be quite willing to give you a hand. In Defence, that is." He smiled self-effacingly. "I doubt I'm the ideal person to help you in your other subjects. I was quite an average student in most subjects back when I was at school."

Percy's pride would have had him say that he didn't need Lupin's help. However, his ambition – and though he was a Gryffindor and not a Slytherin, he would quite willingly admit to having a lot of ambition – reminded him that writing off someone who could help him was foolish. Lupin really seemed to know his subject, and to turn down an offer to have that knowledge at his disposal would hardly prove conducive to his getting into the Ministry position he wanted.

"I would appreciate that," he said instead.

Lupin smiled, and Percy noticed that he didn't look half as tired and worn when his eyes lit up like that.

Not that he was suddenly _attractive_ or anything. Percy wouldn't even notice if he was, because he wasn't gay, and so men just all looked the same to him that way.

"I have Thursday evenings after eight o'clock free, if you'd like to come to my office then. And you'd be welcome at that time each week for as long as you like."

"Thank you," Percy said. And then he left the room before Lupin could try to direct him back to the topic of his 'problems'.

~ * ~ * ~

As his seventh year neared its end and the N.E.W.T.s drew ever closer, Percy decided that the insults had come almost full circle.

His fellow students had finally caught onto the fact that Percy's disappearances every Thursday evening weren't at all related to his Head Boy duties. Somehow the truth that he was having private tutorials with Professor Lupin had been spread.

For the first time in five or six years, Percy heard the term 'teacher's pet' being aimed in his direction.

This time, however, he was beginning to suspect that they might just be right. About that, and about the more vicious and personal insults he'd been hearing for the past few years.

He could no longer look at Lupin and not think about what it would be like to just forget that they were teacher and student. In that case, he would lean forward and kiss the other man – for Percy was a man himself, now, his student status aside. Lupin would moan and pull him closer. As they rubbed their groins together through thick robes and Lupin grasped Percy's arse, he would be able to feel how hard they both were.

Lupin would whisper that he'd been waiting for this for so long. Percy would reply that he'd been waiting his whole bloody life, and could Lupin please hurry up and touch him skin to skin? And then with a sly sort of grin that Percy had never seen on his Professor's face before, even when they were alone, Lupin would remind Percy that his name was ‘Remus’, and that unless Percy had a particular interest in capitalising on the teacher/student aspect of their relationship, he really should call him that.

Percy wondered what it would be like to have sex with Remus Lupin, professor or not. And it always left him unbearably hard.

He had to admit, finally, that perhaps he was gay after all. And that perhaps that wasn't actually such a terrible thing. Percy had always strived to be extraordinary, so why should he be 'normal' in his preferences? Who wanted to be normal?

But he couldn't ambush Lupin in the halls or after class, as much as he might fantasise about doing so. He didn’t want Lupin to get into trouble, for starters. He really liked the man, and he was a good Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Hogwarts needed that, and Percy would feel terribly guilty if he drove him out of the school. And as for himself, the last thing he needed with only a week or so to go until his N.E.W.T.s was to have to meet with the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall and perhaps even Madame Pomfrey about his 'relationship' with his professor.

Just over a week later, he decided that he was glad he'd never outwardly pursued Lupin. He imagined the realisation that he'd risked his marks and created a scandal all for a _werewolf_. He would never have been chosen for a high-ranking Ministry starting position if anyone had found out that _that_ had happened.

And yet he couldn't stop thinking about Lupin. He woke up from a dream filled with pale, scarred limbs and decidedly masculine hands touching him all over and couldn't help but finish himself off with Lupin in mind.

But he was, in his own way, happy now. No one called him a 'shirt-lifter' or 'fudge-packer' anymore. They'd never had any evidence of his liking other men.

And he decided that he couldn't give up the ensuing sense of freedom for anything. Not even the possibility of finally having someone he wanted, even if that person was perhaps not totally ideal.

And even though he didn't particularly want to be normal, he thought that it might be an idea to fly under the radar, just for a little while.

He still dreamed of men, and of Remus Lupin in particular. He still woke up with the word, "Professor!" on his lips. He couldn't help it.

But that was all he would allow it to be.

For now, at least.

~FIN~


End file.
